Garrioch: Eugene Melnyk keeps pushing to save more lives through The Organ Project

Somebody saved his life. Now, he wants to do the same for someone else.

The Ottawa Senators’ owner, who had a liver transplant on May 19, 2015, is trying to do his part by giving back, and Wednesday night at the Royal York hotel in Toronto “The Organ Project,” an initiative Melnyk launched in 2016, held its second annual gala to raise awareness and funds for the charity.

The Organ Project was launched to help make the process of donation in Ontario easier by allowing those who are interested to fill out a form that only takes about two minutes. Ideally, down the road, the initiative will be Canada-wide, but for right now they’re focusing on Ontario.

Last November, Melnyk participated in We Day at the Canadian Tire Centre to try to get his message to young people. The hope is those kids went home to tell their parents about The Organ Project. The goal is to get this subject talked about as part of the curriculum in high schools, and they’ve also reached out to universities.

Let’s face it, this is something not everybody is comfortable talking about, but April is transplantation month and Melnyk would like people to at least have the conversation. He hopes to launch The Organ Project in other parts of Canada in the next 12 months.

“It’s starting to really take off and we’re ready for Phase II by going to the institutions and corporate Canada,” Melnyk said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Right now, it’s a huge success. We’ve been quietly doing this and people are signing up because we want people saving lives.

“I’m going to be encouraging people on and on and on to go to The Organ Project (website) and register. I can’t reach every person, but I can reach every person through a conduit.”

At last year’s initial gala, country star Carrie Underwood, who is married to former Senators centre Mike Fisher, performed with more than 600 people on hand. This year, the Barenaked Ladies, fresh off their performance at the Juno Awards, were on hand, along with Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk.

This is something that means a lot to Melnyk, and he wants it be a success so he can help save lives. According to The Organ Project website, there are more than 4,500 people across Canada waiting for organ transplants, and the organization estimates 260 of those people will pass away because no donor is found.

“The surgery was 11 hours and I was in pain for a couple of days, but the painful part is the waiting time. Waking up every day and wondering, ‘Is this going to be my day?’ ” said Melnyk, a father of two daughters.

Melnyk, who says May 19 “is like a second birthday to him,” would like more people to have the chance to have their day because people have filled out their donor cards.

He wasn’t in very good shape when he had his surgery, and he knows every time he sits down to watch the Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre he’s fortunate.

“Honest to God, I go to a great hockey game and I sit back and I think I very easily could not have been here … very easily,” Melnyk said. “There’s a certain point where you know your body has crumbled to the point where you know they cannot possibly operate on you. You’re just too weak.

“What happens is they take you off the list and you die, and that happens every day, and that’s sad.”

No, there isn’t any shortage of support in Canada for organ donation, but it’s not something that’s top of mind for people.

The issue for the people on the list is it’s normally long and there aren’t enough donors, which makes it tough to find a match. Waiting for a donor in the transplant unit of the University Health Network in Toronto, Melnyk spent months after he was diagnosed with liver failure before a match was found.

Melnyk is alive because, with help from the Senators, the club was able to launch a public campaign. More than 2,000 people came forward and, on May 19, the UHN found an exact match from the donor, who didn’t want any recognition and only wanted to help Melnyk “win a Stanley Cup.”

He doesn’t know who the donor was but would like to fulfil that wish.

“That’s always top of mind. I promised this person I was going to win a Stanley Cup for them,” said Melnyk.

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